Wholeness In Being Grateful
And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. Luke 17:11-19
The parable of the Ten Lepers is a famous story that teaches us about being thankful. Reading from Luke 17:11-19, we see that Jesus had cleansed ten lepers along His way who had begged Him to heal them. Jesus did not instantly heal them; instead, He told them to go and present themselves to the priest. As they obeyed, they were all healed as they walked on their way. Out of the ten, only one returned to Jesus to thank Him for what He had done.
Many times, people are like the nine lepers; after God had answered their prayer, they went on with their lives, forgetting to give thanks to the LORD. For instance, a person can go to church and attend all the activities, hoping that God might therefore answer their prayer of having a good job. Then, when God finally answers that prayer, the person no longer has time for God because of the job. We can be so overwhelmed by blessings that we forget about the One who gave them to us.
As true lovers of God, we must be like the Samaritan, who returned to Jesus and fell down at His feet to thank Him. He was not like the nine lepers, who went on their way, not turning back to thank the One who had answered their prayer. Like all the lepers, the Samaritan was desperate to be cleansed of leprosy. There was an intense need in his life that he was searching for the One who could give him what he needed. And at the moment Jesus Christ heard his cry and cleansed him on the way, he “turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God…”
The nine lepers needed something, and were focused on getting healed, but the Samaritan was different. We see that his focus was not on being healed, but on Who could heal him. He was able to turn back and glorify God because He had such an awareness of who is the Lord—the Man who had healed him. When he realized that he had been healed, He returned to Jesus and fell down at his feet to thank him. Upon thanking Jesus, we read that Jesus did not only heal this man, but also made him “whole.” The Samaritan’s faith in Jesus earned restoration for his body, soul and spirit.
There is wholeness in being thankful to God. When we are thankful and constantly aware of God’s goodness, our body not only functions in a perfect state, but even our soul is at peace. When our soul is at peace, the Spirit of Christ in us can manifest the fruit of the Kingdom of God—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Galatians 5:22-23 2 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.).
